Grand Fare ((Alarice))

[Melody Bang-Bala G6]

Melody moved along with the rest of the noisy horde of students into the Great Hall, familiar and welcome in all its splendour. It was bedecked out in the colours of all the houses; extra grand today because it was a feast. Today it was the welcoming feast. That was what she called it; she wasn't entirely certain that was what it was supposed to be called but it fitted the feast. The feast was to welcome all the new first years to the school and to welcome all the returning students back - from the second years to the seventh years who were in their final year at Hogwarts. Melody was beginning her second year now, so she was one of those youngest returning students, although she was one of the older ones in her year, her birthday being in October. She sometimes felt small amongst the bigger students, but only small in height. She had enough confidence to talk to older students otherwise.

Melody bounced impatiently as she sat down in one of the comfortable chairs at the Gryffindor table. Hogwarts never did anything in moderation - even the students' chairs had fairly carvings on them, the Gryffindor ones with both the Gryffindor and Hogwarts crest on them in elaborate detail. That was why she was looking forward to the feast so much. Her mum could knock up a good stew, but she didn't do things as well as Hogwarts feasts. There could hardly be as much choice as at Hogwarts feasts either. Melody loved that choice; so many different tastes to try. She looked sullenly at the empty plates and goblets laid out in front of them, willing them to fill with heaps of delicious looking and smelling food. They'd have to wait for the first years to be sorted first of course, and Melody looked around for someone to talk to about the prospect of the new people who were in the position she'd been in only a year ago, which seemed so long ago now after all she'd learned in that time. There wasn't anyone from her year that she could see anywhere near; Melody had arrived on her own without anyone from Gryffindor with her who she could sit down with. So she'd just sat down near the middle of the table, where she would be able to get a selection of the food when it came, and she now started humming a tune which would allow itself to fall subject to a rallentando, before speeding up again and moving the music on impatiently, just like she felt at the moment. While her humming couldn't do justice to the full orchestral impatience she was imagining in her head, it distracted and diverted her for a while as she hoped someone would find it in their hearts to come and join her.

[ashley]

"Katie? Errrrr, Katie where are you?" Alarice called out, searching frantically for her best friends head of striking long red hair, among the mass of brown and blond in front of her. It was the first night back at Hogwarts and time for the welcoming feast. The hall that evening was lit beautifully with its usual hundreds of floating candals, and was beginning to become crowded with students. Alarice had just gotton out of a carriage with Katie by her side and now just as suddenly, she was gone. Alarice had been in the middle of a very important story about her new step father and his three children, but before she could finish, Katie had dissapeared.
Great Thought Alarice. I'll just sit by myself. Alarice pushed through the crowd, giving up on her search for her best friend, and started toward the Gryffindor table. It was Alarice's 3rd year back at Hogwarts and it was supposed to be perfect. Well, that had been her plan at the beginning of last summer. But that hope now seemed slightly out of reach, for her dear old mum had just gotton married to probably the foulest person on the planet. Her mother, who was a muggle, had met Malcom Miles, a pure blooded wizard, in Diagon Alley the beginning of last year and surprisingly, and quite oddly, they had hit it off. It was such an unlikey couple. Most pure blooded wizards in the wizarding community wanted nothing to do with muggles.
I wish I could have nothing to do with his three kids. Thought Alarice with a smirk, watching as Jamie, Niclole, and Kyle took their seats at the Slytherin table.
Alarice spotted a girl who seemed to be just a bit younger than her, sitting in the middle of the Gryffindor table alone. She pushed back her long sandy blond hair and began forward.
Ill just go and sit with her. She seems nice enough. Alarice assured herself, attactching a friendly smile to her face.
As Alarice approached she noticed the girl humming a familiar tune. "I like that song." She said with a smile as she slid into the bench beside her.

[Melody Bang-Bala G6]

Melody bounced again on her chair as she saw someone who seemed to be coming towards her, returning the smile she got a moment later with her own one full of energy. It was the beginning of another school year, and had been eager all summer to get back to Hogwarts and start learning again, if slightly less excited by the prospect of Potions lessons. Melody returned her attention to the empty plates and goblets, and to looking along the table for any of her friends or dorm-mates, without much success. She looked back though as the girl she had seen earlier took a seat beside her, and commented on the tune she was humming. Melody stopped abruptly; she couldn't speak while she was humming and she'd almost forgotten that she was doing so, but her face lit up nevertheless, filled with all her usual confidence and surety of herself.

"Aye, tha likes it eh?" she said jovially. "Ah've yet ter come across many 'oo're much struck on it. But I s'pose tha canna ask t'world, eh? No, but Ah likes t'modern music too, course, 'fact Ah'd really love ter sing when I grow up. Most likely ah won't be highly thought o' if ah do, but then tha canna 'ope ter be t'Weird Sisters, eh?" Melody looked plaintively at the empty plates which were there just to torture her again, before carrying on voicing her lines of thought, which generally went all over the place. "So does tha know much wizard classical music? Ah knows a lot o' t'Muggle ones, coming as Ah do from a Muggle family, see, but it's on'y recently Ah've started knowin' some o' t'wizarding world ones. They're rather different, Muggle an' wizard ones, but I'm startin' ter like t'wizard ones now, see." Melody gave her new companion a smile, thinking that perhaps she should let her talk for a while now, since she'd taken up her fair share of time in her eagerness, before jumping forward slightly in her chair with a start as she realised they still didn't know each other's names.
"Oh Ah do beg yer pardon," said she, looking chastened, "Ah've been talking on and tha've not even been done t'courtesy of knowin' me name. Well, easy ter put right anyhow, eh? I'm Melody Bang-Bala, secon' year Gryffindor now Ah s'pose I'll be. Pleased ter meet yer." Melody extended her right hand with which to shake her new companion's.

[ashley]

Alarice was taken aback at the eagerness of the girl she had just sat beside. She seemed friendly all the same however, and Alarice liked that she was so confindent with herself. When Alarice had tried talking to other younger students they had only responded with one word answers, grunts of yes and no, or had been so quiet they wernt even audible. Alarice sat registering what the girl had told her. She like to sing, liked muggle music because she came from a muggle family. The conversation generally was about music which Alarice could definately contribute to. She had only won every talent show at her school singing a few of her favorite songs for 3 years straight before she came to Hogwarts. The girl then introduced herself and asked of Alarice's name.
"Oh, hi, Im Alarice Blackstill." Alarice said, shaking Melody's outstretched hand. "I'm a third year Gryffindor." She smiled and then decided to comment on some of the things Melody had said about music, just to make friendly conversation. "Yeah I like wizard songs to, but i guess I'll always prefer muggle music, considering Im muggle born. But then of course some wizard music I cant stand. Specifically what my step father plays all the time at our house."
Alarice cursed herself silently for the last bit of what she had just said. Why was it that in almost every conversation she had, her dislike for her stepfather dominated the majority of what she talked about. It was either his eating habbits, children, way of life, now his music?!
Man no wonder Katie dissapeared. I probably bore the heck out of people. Alarice thought to herself.

[Melody Bang-Bala G6]

Melody smiled brightly as the girl introduced herself, looking towards the staff table briefly to regard the teachers. Professor McGonagall, her own Head of House, wasn't there yet; presumably she was still ushering the first years in, but most of the rest of the teachers were there, not all looking particularly happy. Melody put a bemused expression on her face. They needed to have a more positive outlook on life. She then turned back to Alarice, who she had been listening to carefully talking about music, and answered, "Alarice, eh? Ah'll 'ave ter do me best ter remember that. Names aren't me strongest points, I'm afraid, but Ah'll be 'elped by t'fact tha've a nice name there. An' I'm not surprised tha doesn't care for all wizard music; there's a lot o' different sorts as it 'appens so tha'd be hard pressed ter like 'em all, eh?" Melody stopped, smiling and nodding, and then added to what she had said as she remembered the last point Alarice had made. "Oh aye? Step-father not 'ave t'best taste, eh? Just 'ave ter grin an' bear it, I s'pose, or get yersel' out o' t'house if 'e decides to play it. Not so much yer can do though."

Melody smiled in a friendly way and looked again at the empty plates and goblets mournfully. While all the sweets she'd consumed on the train had been very tasty, they hadn't really been very fulfilling, and it had been a long time since lunch for someone with a demanding appetite such as she had. Now she transferred her gaze to the door she had gone out of with the rest of the people in her year, only last year, to be sorted. A whole new batch of them were coming through now, and she was a second year now, not a first year who everyone expected to be timid and useless. She regarded Alarice for a moment, before remarking, "Third year, eh? 'ow long does it take fer t'firsties ter be sorted then? Ah 'ardly noticed meself last year see, jus' so relieved to be sorted into a house Ah didna really pay much attention ter t'rest o' t'time it took. On'y Ah'm rather keen ter 'ear t'Sorting 'at's song, an' then eat till Ah'm full afore Ah go ter bed; Ah'm tired too, see, long day ter come all this way." Melody looked at the older Gryffindor girl expectantly, her gaze hardly shifting restlessly as it usually did, especially when she was in an excitable mood as she was slightly now.

[ashley]

"Oh it does take quite some time." Said Alarice miserably, gazing up at the old and torn sorting hat near the front of the hall, perched on a wooden stool. She was starving and had no desire to watch the first years be sorted, AGAIN. Every year she would have to watch, all the way up to her 7th at Hogwarts and already it sort of lost its appeal.
"But, yeah. I guess I will just have to grin and bear it with my new step dad." Alarice admitted conversationally. It was sort of what she had been doing. Minus the 'grinning' part of course. Whenever around him she usually wore a look of disgust.
"Gosh Im sooo hungry. I just want to eat already." Alarice said aloud almost forgetting Melody was beside her. Once realizing, she directed her conversation towards the girl. "So, your in your second year then? How do you like Hogwarts so far? Great huh? Im so excited this year because I can finally go into Hogsmeade!" It was true. Finally, after two years of curiosity, having nothing but the stories told by older students about Zonkos Joke shop and the Hogshead butterbeers, she and her fellow third years would finally be able to venture into the village. Just the thought of it seemed to raise Alarice's spirits.

[Melody Bang-Bala G6]

Melody nodded noncommittally at Alarice, giving her a small smile which was rather uncharacteristic of her. The older girl didn't seem very enthusiastic right at that moment and if there was one thing that put a dampener on Melody's own eager talking, it was the other person sounding depressed. She grinned though as Alarice commented on being very hungry, her own stomach coincidentally complaining at her simultaneously. "Aye well," she said conspiratorially, "Ah'll wager tha're not t'only one. Fact, Ah knows tha're not t'only one, as Ah'm pretty peckish meself. But Ah s'pose we'll just 'ave to grin an' bear it, eh?" Melody directed another grin towards her companion and continued to listen as the third year started to make conversation with her.

"Aye," she replied at length once Alarice had finished talking. "Ah'm in me secon' year here. Jus' starting, course. An' I like it; lots o' room on the Grounds to do what Ah like, plenty o' good nosh - when they serve it, o' course - an' lessons more interesting than Maths. Though Ah don't think much on Potions. How about you, eh? Ah've yet to come across t'nutter 'oo says they like Potions. Possible to be good at it, 'course, though Ah'm far from it - but Ah cannot fer t'life o' me see how anyone could like Snape." She smiled at Alarice as the older girl's thoughts were evidently on Hogsmeade. Melody pondered the idea of the wizarding village. She'd heard a bit about it; tasted some of the sweets from Honeydukes (and they were simply divine). But she hadn't really ever pined to be allowed to go there - there was plenty to divert her in Hogwarts itself and she was one to accept what she was given and make the best out of it. She was happy to have (almost) the freedom to go nearly anywhere she wanted to go in the castle. A whole castle to explore! It was only her second year: she was sure there were parts of it she hadn't found yet. She realised she ought to say something in reply to Alarice and so said, "Aye, well I can't go there meself yet, on'y just being a secon' year. I 'ope it lives up to thar expectations." Melody gave the older girl a quick smile and, having picked up a spoon that lay on the table before her, started to bang her goblet gently with that spoon to the main rhythm of a jazzy piece she was playing at the moment on the guitar.

((Ah'm ever so sorry for t'two months... or more in fact... it's taken me to reply. Ah wouldna look much on it if I were you meself so again... Ah'm really sorry. Christmas now though so Ah should be in a position to do better!))